Banned: GE Rice Imports

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Feature story - 29 September, 2006

Just weeks after we uncovered US rice on supermarket shelves in Europe contained illegal genetically engineered (GE) rice, the scandal keeps growing with more illegal GE rice being discovered. In the latest blow for the GE industry, the world's largest rice processing company has stopped importing US rice into Europe due to the threat of contamination.

Ebro Puleva, which controls 30 percent of the European rice
market, hasstopped importing US rice due to the presence of an
illegal GE ricestrain. The rice strain causing the contamination is
called LL601 andhas not been approved for human consumption
anywhere in the world. Thecompany responsible for the contamination
is Germany's Bayer who endedfield trials of LL601 in the US five
years ago. However, the LL601 riceescaped the field trials and has
now contaminated an unknown number ofconventional rice fields
across the US.

Greenpeace investigationsrecently found another illegal GE rice
contamination outbreak. Thistime it is from China and is a variety
of rice called Bt63. Like the UShowever, Bt63 rice also escaped
field trials and has now been found inprocessed rice imports into
Europe. The extent of both GEcontaminations is still unknown with
new discoveries of contaminatedrice occurring almost daily across
Europe.

The move by EbroPuleva to stop importing US rice follows a
summer of scandals, withillegal GE contamination found in rice
products all over Europe as wellas in Japan. As a result of Bayer's
recklessness, the global foodindustry is facing massive costs
associated with this contamination,including testing costs, product
recalls, brand damage, import bans andcancelled imports and
contracts.

At least three multi-milliondollar class action lawsuits have
been filed by US rice farmers againstBayer CropScience already, as
farmers struggle to protect theirlivelihoods from GE contamination.
To compound Bayer's legal problems,they may soon be in the legal
sights of Ebro Puleva too. The world'slargest rice company has
indicated that they expect to bring legalactions against Bayer as
well.

"By imposing a blanket ban onrice imports from the US, Ebro
Puleva has acknowledged how real andcostly the risk of GE
contamination is," said Jeremy Tager, GEcampaigner from Greenpeace
International. "With GE now as uneconomic asit is unacceptable,
governments in countries that grow or import GEmust stop placing
farmers, consumers, the environment and industry atsuch high
risk."

The illegal GE rice scandal continues to ragejust as the WTO has
finally published a ruling on a case broughtagainst the EU by the
US, Canada and Argentina over Europe imposingrestrictions on the
importing of GE food. At its heart, the dispute isabout whether
trade laws trump environmental laws - and surprise,surprise, to the
WTO it is trade law rules.

"The WTO is clearlyunqualified to deal with complex scientific
and environmental issues,and yet, when there is a conflict between
trade and environmentalconsiderations, it is the WTO that gets to
decide which rules rule;it's like putting the fox in charge of the
chickens," said DanielMittler, Trade Policy Advisor at Greenpeace
International

Thelatest GE contamination scandal shows that once GE organisms
arereleased into the environment, the consequences for consumers,
farmersand traders are enormous. The WTO has no place determining
what peopleshould eat and illegal GE rice has no place on the
dinner tables ofconsumers anywhere in the world.